ENIGMA 2000 NEWSLETTER 5th Anniversary Issue MI5 HQ Thames House [aka Robert Hendy-Freegard House!] Issue 31 November 2005 http://groups.yahoo.com/group/enigma2000 ENIGMA Newsletter, Issue 31 Fifth anniversary issue What an eventful past 5 years this has been. Yes - I know we’re all that much older, but what a success story for your Editorial staff, Desk Managers and all our various contributors. Issue 1 was 15 pages and Issue 2 struggled to 20 pages. At this point your two editors (Paul & Mike) were thinking “maybe we can get to about 30 pages”, we were wrong ! Offers of help / suggestions / comments etc came in a steady and increasing flow, against which we had to continually update our objectives and “tune” our editorial and presentation strategies. As editors we reached major milestones when a number of regular contributors offered to take some of the workload, thus leading to the creation of our station specific “Desks” and a team of dedicated sub-editors who not only collate information but investigate, analyse, forecast and tabulate their results for publication by E2k, either as part of the Newsletters or as separate reference documents posted on the group site. The inception of E2kDE, Enigma2000 Germany, ably organised by “Kopf” added a further dimension to our coverage keeping us informed of its activities with its regular NL reports. The average Newsletter now numbers some 60 pages, probably the optimum, and our incoming info has to be heavily edited to prevent “information overload” and “page inflation.” If all info was reproduced “as is” we would be producing 120+ pages. The worldwide “Numberist” hobby has never been so accurately and so timely served as it is today by the E2k team. What even a few years ago was regarded as a very specialised interest is now gaining new participants at an unprecedented rate. The “pull” of the E2k Newsletter has been as high as 15,000 (from all authorised sources), actually higher than the circulation of many published mainstream hobby magazines. What will the next 5 years bring to the interest? Whatever it is our members and readers can be assured that E2k will be a leading light in it. Your editors are aware of some very interesting developments coming up and will be keeping a “ ear close to the ground” ENIGMA 2000 is proud in preserving the ideals of those who have gone before us by creating and sustaining interest in such a fascinating hobby. This interest is now further aided by the speed and benefits of modern communications technology and we are pround in carrying this banner forward. Our heartfelt (but severely understated) thanks to all those who have contributed to the success of ENIGMA 2000. Happy Birthday to ENIGMA 2000! Paul, London & Mike L Co-editors ENIGMA 2000 Newsletter. And now on with the show :- It never surprises us, well not completely, when a number station does something unusual, as we have regularly made comment on these little “glitches” in almost every Newsletter since Issue 1. We indicated in last Issue that there were some “happenings” going on and for this Newsletter there’s been quite a handful to report, in addition to the expected scheduled September/October changes. Listening conditions overall reasonably settled with the exception of a large? “hiccup” in early Sept with 2 warnings received (11th & 12th Sept, from the 7/8th Sept flares). Reports indicated that the sunspot 798 was huge, many times larger than the earth, and resulted in an X-17 flare followed by lesser ones, this was commented on by the scientific community as being one of the largest in the past 30 years. No wonder we had a period of HF blackout. [ Strange that our usual warnings of high Solar Activity were a few days behind the events, first time this has happened since Feb 1998 ] Editors Comment Watching closely the activity on our “ENIGMA 2000 Group site” we’re encouraged by the number of requests to join, however the downside of current submissions is the very high number of efforts, by newcomers, to “re-invent the wheel”. Although these offerings are well intentioned a majority offered to us contribute very little to that previously examined by other members whose work is/was subsequently published in our Newsletters. We earnestly encourage new members to take the time to read through, and understand, the contents of the Newsletters, there are 5 years worth available, before investing your time and effort into duplicating already published information. You will also find a wealth of helpful information in the ENIGMA Control List and other documents in the Groups’ file sections. If you then think you have a worthwhile project let us know, you will have our full support. Before we move onto anything else we take pleasure in providing you with details of professional Number Station users: Confirmed end user of Number Transmissions from East Germany Military Attaches [MAs] were stationed in all the nations in which the East Germans had an Embassy. Thus they had NO MA in West Germany, as the West Germans (BRD Bundesrepublik Deutschland) did not recognise the government of East Germany. These MAs are known to have been the recipients of encrypted messages sent by means of 5 figure number groups. Question posted by Volker (Abbreviated) What were the duties and tasking of the MAs in the various nations in which they were based? Answer from ZAIG. The work of the MAs in the respective host nations 2 In my estimation, represents difficult terrain. They would be automatically assumed to be spies by the various Intelligence services of the various host nations in which they were stationed. This fact alone meant that they would be under constant surveillance by the respective intelligence services of whichever nation they were based, especially if that nation were a NATO member. As a result, the various tasks of the MAs had to be carried out covertly. This fact alone meant that the work of the MAs was not of high a quality as that of the “illegal” operatives. The work of the MA would tend to be in the nature of building up networks of trusted informants and trusted contact persons (In German, there is an expression “Vertrauensleute”. This means literally “trusted People” and is difficult to translate but can be taken to mean a reliable source and trustworthy. Gary.) The MA would also evaluate official scripts and press releases and trade literature. On the diplomatic front, these MAs may have unearthed one or more further important pieces of information. These were also important pieces in the military/political world picture that was being assembled in the OBERSPREESTRASSE.(Intelligence HQ) The results had to be evaluated by the Information Service, which was, for many years, led by Major General Alexander KAVIN and afterwards by Lieutenant General Kurt GOTTWALD. This information is my personal assessment of the MAs tasks and duties (See source details.) SOURCE: - SEAMAN The fact that these MAs apparently were attached to the “Secret Service” automatically put them in the cross hairs of the secret services of the opposition. The same applied to their immediate collaborators who were in military service. (E.g. drivers) In addition, the BND targeted for defection attempts GDR MAs. SOURCE:_ ZAIG Recorded attempts at inducing DDR citizens to defect. It is certain that such attempts were often made against DDR citizens who were on foreign territory, and that members of the various armed State organisations were of special interest. These organisations were, both at home and abroad, always of the greatest interest to the BND. In the area of MAs, the case of Jura HOFFMANN springs to mind. Army General Heinz HOFFMANN was, shortly after the death of his father, offered 1.000,000 DM by the BND as an inducement to defect. Or again, the case of Ensign BOS, at the time an assistant to the MA in Poland, Lt. Col. Horst GODEHARD. These are concrete examples with which the Apparatus of the Military Attaché’s Division had to deal. But, if one is interested in numbers, here are some;- The MfS annually recorded 20 to 30 attempts at defection inducement against DDR citizens world wide, all of which were attempted by the BND. SOURCE;- SEAMAN It is certain that Jura HOFFMANN was the best known of the attempts at inducement to defect, but there were also many others which were aimed at embassy staff, overseas cadre, and security related personnel, who appeared to be involved in Intelligence for an Eastern Bloc Intelligence Service.(E.g. Military Intelligence.) Nor should it be forgotten that there were many embassies and consulates in the newly opened DDR/BRD in the world of UNO recognition—military missions perceived to be undertaken by accredited civilian personnel. A quote from SVEN 10 “Numbers do not always tell everything about the intensity of the confrontations between secret services.” SOURCE:- ZAIG. To:- SVEN10. As your interest in numbers is unbroken, I will satisfy your thirst for knowledge a little. Please do not ask for my source, just accept the numbers and believe me. I deal only with the 2nd Directorate.(Haii) and only with the MAs and those in that immediate circle. In the year 1986 there were 75 known attacks in this area. In the year 1987, there were “only”32. Underestimation and the non-reporting of such occurrences can explain the decrease. And now for our friend the statistician, the breakdown of these 32 Intelligence Service related attacks on the Haii.(2nd Dir.) 10 attempts at making contact with a presumably intelligence related background.